U.S. Women's Soccer Team Sues U.S. Soccer Federation For Pay Discrimination

ESPN – Five members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team — including Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan — have filed on behalf of the entire team a wage-discrimination action against the U.S. Soccer Federation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The filing, citing figures from the USSF’s 2015 financial report, says that despite the women’s team generating nearly $20 million more revenue last year than the U.S. men’s team, the women are paid almost four times less.

Solo, appearing with Lloyd on NBC’s “Today” on Thursday, said “not much has changed” during her time on the team. “I’ve been on this team for a decade and a half, and I’ve been through numerous CBA negotiations, and honestly, not much has changed,” Solo said. “We continue to be told we should be grateful just to have the opportunity to play professional soccer, to get paid for doing it.
“In this day and age, it’s about equality. It’s about equal rights. It’s about equal pay. We’re pushing for that. We believe now the time is right because we believe it’s our responsibility for women’s sports and specifically for women’s soccer to do whatever it takes to push for equal pay and equal rights. And to be treated with respect.”

Also greatly disparate, according to the figures, is the pay for playing in the World Cup. The U.S. women received a team total of $2 million when it won the World Cup last year in Canada. Yet when the U.S. men played in the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, the team earned a total of $9 million despite going just 1-2-1 and being knocked out in the round of 16. “We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships, and the [men] get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships,” Solo said.

Said Kessler in a conference call with reporters: “The reality is that this team is more valuable to the USSF than the men’s team has been. That’s what the facts show. And they would be justified in asking for more than the men are receiving. But the first step that they are seeking is equal treatment. That should be an easy step for the USSF to take.”

Hope Solo couldn’t be more wrong when she said

“In this day and age, it’s about equality. It’s about equal rights. It’s about equal pay. We’re pushing for that. We believe now the time is right because we believe it’s our responsibility for women’s sports and specifically for women’s soccer to do whatever it takes to push for equal pay and equal rights. And to be treated with respect.”

Wrong. It’s about putting asses in the seats. That’s all professional sports is about. Creating supply and demand. And guess what? People care more about women’s soccer than mens. That’s just facts. I’d say Alex Morgan and Hope Solo are the two most famous US soccer players in the world. Maybe that would change if the men didn’t suck but they do. The Women’s world cup is huge every single time because the women are awesome. And apparently the facts and revenue generation back those statistics up. The Women’s team makes more than the men’s team. So guess what? They shouldn’t be paid equal they should be paid more. Not because they are women, but because they win and people like winners and spend money on winners. The US Soccer Federation should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves. They should just cancel the men’s program all together and just give that money to the girls. They’ve earned it.